Writer 1978: I Need to Give the Literary World a Lesson

Chapter 101 Meeting Ba Jin

Liu Yimin stayed on the fourth floor for more than an hour, chatting with them about the creative process. After checking the time, he guessed that Cui Daoyi had finished reading, so he got up and went to the third floor.

Lying on his bed, Feng Jicai pondered what realism and romanticism truly meant. He eventually concluded that Liu Yimin was a proponent of the left-wing faction, while he was a proponent of the "cherishing spring" faction; their literary styles were fundamentally different.

The two major factions in the literary world, the pro-government and pro-Chun factions, have been constantly clashing. However, in terms of strength, the pro-Chun faction has consistently boasted a large number of prominent figures, including Zhou Yang, Ba Jin, Zhang Guangnian, and Mao Dun. The pro-government faction, on the other hand, includes Lin Mohan, Ding Ling, and Liu Baiyu.

The direct confrontation was between Zhang Guangnian and Lin Mohan, who had many arguments. But despite their disputes, they were good friends, and many members of the Xichun faction had served as their subordinates in the past.

The Xichun faction advocated criticizing the decade, and Zhang Guangnian was the first to approve Liu Xinwu's "The Class Teacher," marking the beginning of this movement.

The writers below took sides and engaged in debates.

Inside the editorial office, Cui Daoyi put down Liu Yimin's manuscript and sighed:

"Yimin, your novel allowed me to see decades of history in old Beiping, like a scroll slowly unfolding before me. This Wen San'er is so interesting, like Ah Q in Lu Xun's writing. Even after being beaten, he would comfort himself. I felt a strong survival force from him. If it were me, I couldn't do that."

"If you haven't slapped Wen San'er a few times in Beiping, you can't say you've done well. But in the end, our Master Wen lived to the end, while the others have long since turned into dust," Liu Yimin said with a smile.

“You can see the awakening of national consciousness in a rickshaw puller. Although this national consciousness is better than nothing for Wen San, we would not have come this far without the general awakening of national consciousness.”

"Brother, how are you doing?"

"When I first heard you speak, I knew it would be wonderful, but what you wrote was not only wonderful, it was brilliant!" Cui Daoyi handed the manuscript to the others to read.

"In that case, I'll be going now. I'm going to the Beijing People's Art Theatre, and I'll go back to school tomorrow."

"Hey, don't worry. The publishing house is working hard on the standalone edition. The first batch is expected to be printed around April, with the publisher planning to print 100,000 copies. I've already told them to send you a batch. It's your first time publishing, so there will definitely be a lot of people wanting to send you copies, and buying them yourself will cost a lot of money."

"They agreed?"

"Agreed. Just give me a number, and I'll mention it to them later!"

"Thank you so much, senior brother!"

"You're too kind. It's an honor for me that you've published a standalone book."

"Please prepare two hundred copies for me, my teacher wants to give them away!"

Inside the Beijing People's Art Theatre's rehearsal hall, Liu Yimin quietly sat at the back, watching the actors rehearse "Mr. Donkey." The actors had started rehearsing on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, and today was the sixteenth.

Liu Yimin watched the second half of the performance from the back and thought it was about right. But Lan Tianye in front was still not satisfied, constantly shouting to correct his body language and ensuring that he was truly immersed in the role.

After the rehearsal ended, Zhu Lin was the first to walk over: "Comrade Liu Yimin, you're back?"

"Not bad, you've made great progress!" Liu Yimin praised.

Zhu Lin said proudly, "Teacher Lan said I'm suited to be an actor, so it would be a huge waste for me to be a researcher at the health institute!"

"Then you need to practice more. You're still a long way from being a real stage actor."

Zhu Lin's smile slowly faded, and after a sigh, he said, "I know I'm far behind them, but I will try my best to play the role of Jiajia well. I can't let 'Mr. Donkey' drag me down." "Comrade Zhu Lin, not bad, you have ambition. Here's a candy for you." Liu Yimin flipped his hand, and several White Rabbit milk candies appeared in his palm.

"Thank you!"

“Comrade Yimin, we want some candy too!” Yang Lixin said with a smile.

Hearing the noise beside him, Zhu Lin quickly grabbed the White Rabbit candy from Liu Yimin's palm and put it into his pocket, then stood aside as if nothing had happened.

"Come on, eat, eat! I brought this for everyone. You've all worked hard!" Liu Yimin said with a smile.

Zhu Lin looked at Liu Yimin, who was distributing candy, and sighed, "So everyone had some!"
"Yimin, how were you feeling just now?" Lan Tianye asked.

"I feel I've made great progress. Teacher Yu Zhi's portrayal of the principal was very vivid, and Zhang Yiman was also good. She brought out the lively personality at the beginning and had a kind of unconventional spirit."

Lu Zhong smiled and looked at Liu Yimin. Zhang Yiman was the most important character in the play. Whether the play was successful or not depended on her at least 40%, so she was under a lot of pressure.

Liu Yimin was also surprised that Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Cixi actually played Zhang Yiman quite well.

“Yimin praised us, but we shouldn’t get too cocky. There were some parts where we didn’t perform very well. We still need to polish the script and the characters.” Yu Shizhi spoke up to calm everyone’s restless emotions and played the bad cop.

After the actors left, Liu Yimin asked Lan Tianye, "How was Zhu Lin's performance?"
"This young lady is hardworking. I can tell she practiced at home during the Spring Festival. She's been trying to find out when you're coming back to Yanjing, subtly hinting at it, as if I don't understand."

"Ask me when I'm coming back?"

“Yeah! If you want to ask, just ask. I don’t know either.” Lan Tianye said, looking at Zhu Lin who was resting in the back.

Liu Yimin glanced at it as well, then asked, "Teacher Lan, where is Teacher Wan?"

"Mr. Ba Jin has come to Yanjing. Your husband has been chatting with him these past two days. Yesterday, the two of them walked outside for half an hour despite the wind. If it were me, I couldn't have done it," Yu Shizhi interjected from the side.

"I see!"

After a short break, rehearsals resumed. Zhu Lin walked up to Liu Yimin from behind and asked softly, "Comrade Liu Yimin, I'd like to invite you to dinner tonight, is that alright?"

"take me Out to eat?"

"Yes, I'll thank you in person!"

"Okay!" Liu Yimin said with a smile, rummaging through his pockets.

Ultimately, the dinner appointment with Zhu Lin was not arranged. Cao Yu learned that Liu Yimin had returned to the Beijing People's Art Theatre, so he asked Wan Fang to come and find him. They were to have dinner at Cao Yu's house that evening and also meet Mr. Ba Jin.

"Master Ba is very kind to the younger generation, junior brother, you don't need to be nervous!" Wan Fang said with a smile, then looked at Zhu Lin in the rehearsal room and quietly asked, "Is that the little girl who invited you to see the play?"

"Senior sister, how did you know?"

"There's nothing about the Beijing People's Art Theatre that I don't know if I want to know it. She's good-looking, prettier than your senior sister."

(End of this chapter)